Troubleshooter with a taste for tight spots | Business

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Sir Donald Brydon
Sir Donald Brydon did not plan to become a non-executive director. “It was a natural progression,” said the 76-year-old City grandee, winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement award. “It wasn’t a conscious decision, it was a response to being asked.”

Brydon’s first taste of non-executive life came via roles on the boards of the drinks giant Allied Domecq and the pharmaceuticals group Amersham, taken up while he was chief executive of Axa Investment Managers in the late 1990s. Brydon has since chaired many of Britain’s biggest companies, including the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Royal Mail, and Smiths Group.

Now he chairs software giant Sage Group and the fintech lender Tide, as well as the Science Museum Foundation and Chance to